Quote:
Originally Posted by skymaster
The WF building (768 Seymour or 555 Robson?) is the central node for Telus downtown Vancouver. It's called "Mutual CO". Haven't been there in years but it's packed with equipment and it has just about all copper and fibre cables running into it from all over downtown dating back to the 1940s.
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The William Farrell (WF) Building was first built on Seymour at Robson in 1941, and the building you can see today (behind the glass skin) was completed in 1953. Later, in the 1970s, the much larger building further north on Seymour was added, and finally a small element with a sunken courtyard up on West Georgia.
In 2001 the Farrell Building was effectively gutted and rebuilt as offices. The equipment was all removed, and the additional skin added (designed by Busby & Associates) that created a green building, with air entering at the bottom, rising up the face of the building, and when the sun is shining, sucked out at the top by photo-voltaic powered fans. No sun, no fan, less airflow. The old opening windows were retained, but behind the skin, so natural ventilation fresh air is available. [More details
here]
A further change followed with the introduction of a glazed atrium replacing part of the 1970s building. This also improved the energy performance by creating a chimey effect to draw the heat from the electronics in the building along, up, and out of the building.
In the past few years the entire building complex has been reconfigured again. This time the Farrell Building and the atrium have been separated from the 1970s building, and sold to Avigilon, who have carried out further changes including replacing the original wooden windows behind the skin.
In the meantime the 1970s building has been tied in to the new Telus office building on West Georgia, designed by Henriquez, and the entire energy system reconfigured to LEED Platinum levels by using, rather than venting, the 1970s building's excess heat, through a new heat exchange system. There's a new glazed screen over almost all the 1970s building to increase the efficiency of the new system. (There's a gap for the intake air vents that run up the building). The various new systems are still being installed and completed, and there are additions on top of the 1970s building as well.
Meanwhile Avigilon have just about completed their renovations, which happen to coincide with the Telus work, but are now a separate building under different ownership. Given how much they've spent on the building, redevelopment seems pretty unlikely for many years, and a commercial point tower on such a small site seems unlikely to be financially worthwhile. (It's not like the MNP site which had virtually no existing building). It's also unlikely to be possible because of how close the residential Telus Garden condo tower would be - it would be even tighter than the Jameson and Exchange proximity.
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